BENDIGO HARNESS RACINGARCHIVED NEWS 2013

7 February 2013 - Daryl Douglas has been out of the cart since a fall on Boxing Day just over six weeks ago, however he is recovering steadily, now reaching a point where it won’t be long before we see him back in the sulky. The champion reinsman spoke to RSN this morning about the trials and tribulations on his road to recovery. “It’s going slowly, I’m all but there; I’ve got to go back to the doctor today and hopefully I will get the all clear to drive,” Douglas said. He won’t be going in blind however, admitting he decided to have a hit-out recently to prepare himself and see how far along his injuries have come. “I had a little test yesterday to see how the jarring would go driving horses around home and I’m still not 100%,” Douglas said. “I drove the first one and it was bearable but then I got on the second one and I thought it wouldn’t want to get any worse than that; then a lap into the third one I had to pull up stumps. “Whether it’s a week or a fortnight, it will at least be one week. I have no worries hopping back in and going again.” The fall itself was traumatic to say the least, leaving Douglas with a raft of injuries which have kept him on the sidelines for much of the summer. “At the time the fall was very harmless, I was going to get up and walk away from it but the horse behind me went right to try and miss me, but the more he went right the more I rolled underneath him,” he said. “As soon as it hit me it was lights out, the next thing I know I woke up in hospital. “I ended up with a broken eye socket, my jaw on both sides and shattered between my nose and mouth. They thought they would have to operate but luckily enough everything was still in the right spot so they’ve allowed it to heal by itself. “The last six weeks all I could eat was weet-bix, scrambled eggs, rice and custard; that was about it. I couldn’t chew anything; I can chew now but nothing too hard.” With life slowly returning to normality for Douglas he will be a force to be reckoned with when he returns to the track. To listen to the full audio when Daryl chatted with Adam White and Mick McGuane on RSN’s Breakfast program simply click here. - Blake Reddan